South Carolina women's basketball: Five Things to Watch - Maryland

On3 imageby:Chris Wellbaum03/27/23

ChrisWellbaum

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1. Bench strength: Breezy Edition

Bree Hall has emerged as one of South Carolina’s key bench players in the postseason. She had a critical three-pointer in the SEC tournament final and is averaging 7.7 points per game in the NCAA tournament. 

It’s a far cry from last season, when Hall had just 12 points the entire tournament and eight of those came in garbage time against Howard in the first round. Things got hard enough that Hall started doubting herself.

“Last year I was really questioning whether I fit on this team,” Hall said. “My teammates last year were telling me they need me, but this year I’ve really bought into that role and understand that this team does need me.”

Playing with energy was never an issue for Hall. Last season as a freshman, Dawn Staley sometimes joked that Hall would always run 100 miles an hour, only nobody knew where she was going. 

“She’s confident. I’m confident in her. She’s put in a lot of work to gain trust from our coaching staff. We don’t question whether she’s going to be ready to play,” Staley said. “She’s bringing her ability to space the floor, get to the rim. Her career is developing really nicely.”

Saying she is confident is one thing, but Staley has proven that confidence to Hall by running after timeout plays to get a shot for Hall. That, in turn, has given Hall the confidence to be more effective.

“It is a confidence booster,” Hall said. “I’m used to just being the decoy, but now being a part of it is a real confidence boost.”

Hall is yet another chess piece for Staley. She is bigger than Zia Cooke, and she can stretch the floor and run in transition more than Brea Beal, the two players she backs up. Hall has also developed into a running mate for Raven Johnson, and the pair is good for one or two fast break connections per game.

“Raven’s always saying, ‘Sprint the court and I’m going to pass it to you. I got you, you got me.,’” Hall said. “That connection has really been building and I’m very excited for next year.”

2. Miller Time

Maryland’s All-American Diamond Miller will face South Carolina for the first time since her freshman year. Stopping her is line one on South Carolina’s scouting report. Read about how South Carolina plans to guard Miller HERE.

3. Abby someone… Abby Meyers

Without Miller in the first game, Princeton transfer Abby Meyers was the star for Maryland. She scored 21 points and was the only Terrapin in double figures.

Meyers was hot in the first half when Maryland kept the game tight, and more than Diamond Miller, Meyers might be the x-factor Monday. If she can get hot and knock down threes, Maryland might have a chance. 

Zia Cooke guarded UCLA’s Kiki Rice in the Sweet 16 and did an outstanding job. Without giving away the gameplan, Cooke said she won’t guard Meyers Monday.

“I won’t be guarding her tomorrow, but she will be guarded,” Cooke said. “We will try to limit that 20 points as much as we can.”

As South Carolina rotates defenders on Miller, expect Meyers to get some different matchups as well.

4. Turnovers and blocks

South Carolina committed 20 turnovers against Maryland in the first game. Maryland was only able to turn those turnovers into 11 points and the Terps only had 10 fast break points.

“We can’t have 20 turnovers tomorrow and think that we’re going to win this basketball game,” Staley said. “We’ve got to decrease the number of turnovers.”

The good news is that South Carolina’s point guard play has improved significantly since that game, which was the second of the season. Raven Johnson started that game, the last before Staley flipped Johnson and Kierra Fletcher in the lineup. 

Both players were also still facing significant minutes restrictions. Johnson played less than 16 minutes and Fletcher played 18 in that game.

South Carolina only had six blocks against UCLA, three below the Gamecocks’ season average. However, it gave South Carolina 315 for the season, just nine away from the all-time single-season record of 324, set by UConn in 2014.

South Carolina is on pace to break that record as well as the record for blocks per game. The Gamecocks set that record in 2020 when they averaged 8.6 blocks per game.

5. Scouting the Terrapins

Maryland plays a five-out lineup with no true posts or true forwards. Wings Diamond Miller and Faith Masonius are the starting “forwards,” which means the Terrapins are small but fast.

“Them being able to get out in transition,” Brea Beal said. “They play five out, everybody’s touching the ball, everybody’s getting good shots, and they are attacking at all times.”

South Carolina’s bigs will have to chase the smaller guards and close out on shooters. That’s not something Kamilla Cardoso does well, so Maryland’s best defense against Cardoso might be to take advantage of her on the other end. 

Cardoso had 13 points and five rebounds in 13 minutes in the first game. She also got into a scuffle in the third quarter that sparked the Gamecocks’ eventual 81-58 rout. Cardoso is preparing to do a lot of running on Monday.

“In practice, we are really working on that, me as well, post players guarding their guards,” she said. “I think I’m doing pretty well. I’m just going to have to do what we do in normal games and try to chase them. If not call for help”

South Carolina will also try to punish Maryland’s transition game by pushing the tempo themselves.

“You give and take when you play that way,” Staley said. “The give is they may make some threes. The take is they may miss some, we rebound, and we push it back at them,” Staley said. “A lot of times when teams play that way, they’re not good at defending the way they play. We’ve got to challenge that tomorrow.”

The Ws

Who: #1 South Carolina vs #2 Maryland

When: 7:00 ET, Monday, March 27

Where: Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, SC

Watch: ESPN

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